ABSTRACT
A number of historians have recognised the factor without however asking how it had come about. Instead of trying to find causes they focused on the question of whether industry’s political importance was the consequence of capitalist development or whether mass unemployment and the payment of reparations had provided the economy in general with a vantage point in politics. Gerald Feldman has made a comparison between agrarian Junkers and heavy industrialists who changed roles after 1918. Heavy industry took over the position of the so-called Grossagrarier and thus ‘laid claim to political primacy for die Wirtschaft and assumed a role in diplomatic negotiations, domestic political affairs, and administrative functions. During the war the alliance between army and industry helped the latter into the prominent political position it desired. The main beneficiaries were heavy industry and the electro-technical and chemical industries.
